Stevens Point Settles - Without the QEO

Four people who played a key role in bargaining a successful 2003-05 contract in Stevens Point are (left to right) Superintendent David Schuler and union negotiators Mary Lee Reineking, Gerri Lardinois, and Mike Kurtz.

They threw the QEO out the window in Stevens Point this year, rolled up their sleeves, and settled a contract.

And the result was a deal that pleased just about everyone involved, while sparing the community the ordeals often associated with the Qualified Economic Offer law: drawn-out, bitter negotiations; teacher protests; and community angst.

In fact, the agreement, at a minimum, comes very close to achieving WEAC’s newly adopted 2003-05 statewide bargaining goals and may actually do so (it is now being analyzed by WEAC staff). You would think that would leave the district unhappy, but that’s not the case either.

“The board is very happy with the way this ended up,” said Superintendent David Schuler.

The key? Both sides say it was a fresh approach to bargaining that disregarded the divisive QEO law and was based on mutual respect, trust and a common commitment to quality education.

Stevens Point is among just 10 locals to settle a 2003-05 contract so far. In fact, 59 districts still haven’t settled a 2001-03 contract. Stevens Point is unusual in that it was able to work with a cooperative school board and come up with a fair contract, said WEAC Collective Bargaining Director Mike McNett.

“Only those units that can meet the statewide goals and serve as a lighthouse in their area should even consider settling now,” he said.

The Stevens Point negotiations did not involve consensus bargaining, said SPAEA chief negotiator Mary Lee Reineking. It was just a decision on both sides to work together, informally, to resolve issues and move forward.

“The QEO was never mentioned in any of our negotiations sessions,” Schuler said. “We don’t think it is appropriate to play us versus them in negotiations if you don’t have to.”

Reineking said these negotiations demonstrate that the QEO only comes into play if the board decides to use it to avoid further discussions or binding arbitration. In most negotiations, that is the case, and the QEO becomes an unfair and unjust tool used by school boards to get the upper hand and punish its teachers, she said. In those cases, Reineking said, arbitration is a much more logical, fair and effective system for resolving conflict.

The QEO, she said, simply should not exist. So in Stevens Point this time, they went about their business as if it didn’t.

Despite severe budget problems brought on by school district revenue controls, declining enrollment and the impending state budget crisis, the contract was settled in an amazingly short period of time.

Without having to resort to “QEO speak,” as Reineking put it, “It took us three sessions. That’s unheard of. I’m pretty sure that’s never happened before.”

In fact, the full bargaining teams never met face to face. Teacher representatives were Reineking, Gerri Lardinois, and Mike Kurtz. Board representatives were Schuler; David Anderson, director of human resources; and Jim Harmon, chair of the school board’s negotiations committee.

Reineking said “an awful lot of hard discussion” took place behind the scenes among the union’s 12-member bargaining team, but the face-to-face negotiation was limited to the smaller group. “That was a method that I think worked nicely,” she said.

She credited Schuler with approaching the bargain “with the assumption that we would reach an agreement, and do that without the QEO, because the QEO only comes into play if we assume we’re not going to come to an agreement.”

Schuler said the board “wanted to send the message that we appreciate our teachers.”

“We made sure our classrooms remain great places for students to learn,” Schuler said. “We recognize that it’s not fair to put more of a burden on our teachers in terms of salary.”

Not that all is rosy in Stevens Point. As elsewhere, severe budget problems are forcing the district to look at a large number of possible teacher layoffs, as well as program cuts. But unlike many other districts, the Stevens Point Area School District is working with the teachers’ union to address those issues.

“We need to make sure we enhance working as a team, where possible, with mutual trust and respect,” said Schuler, a former Waukesha teacher who took over as superintendent in Stevens Point last July after serving for two years as superintendent in Marshall. Schuler said the board has decided to address its $3.5 million budget deficit head on this year.

“We really believe we have to weather this two-year storm, and we will,” he said. “A good, fair contract is a good beginning point” to moving beyond those problems.

The 2003-05 contract settlement provides a salary increase of 3.0% per cell of the salary schedule in each of the two years. There were changes to early retirement and insurance, but the SPAEA does not believe those changes, combined with improved language in other areas, constitute an overall loss in fringe benefit value.

Reineking said she believes the settlement meets other elements of the statewide bargaining goals as well:

• They discussed the need to recoup prior QEO salary losses, and the 3% per cell salary increase is a step in that direction.
  
  
• The contract includes a long-term care insurance provision.
  
  
• Discussions included, and the contract addresses, the issues of the impact of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the new state teacher licensing law, and many school quality issues affecting children and members.
  

Reineking said the union long ago “cultivated an attitude” of listening to the other side during bargaining. “This time, they (board negotiators) did the same,” she said.

“I think the only way this can work is if both sides trust each other,” she said.

“The board feels this is a fair contract for both sides, and we’re very pleased with the process,” Schuler added. “I don’t know why more districts don’t sit down and head in this direction.”

Posted May 14, 2003